Glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, the citric acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation make up cellular respiration. This is the process that mitochondria, the "power plants" of cells, use to generate energy. Glycolysis turns glucose (a simple sugar that your body can get from metabolizing carbohydrates) into pyruvate which is oxidized into Acetyl CoA which then goes to the citric acid cycle. That Acetyl CoA can also be used to make fatty acids.

"Lipogenesis is the process by which acetyl-CoA is converted to fatty acids. The former is an intermediate stage in metabolism of simple sugars, such as glucose, a source of energy of living organisms. Through lipogenesis and subsequent Triglyceride synthesis, the energy can be efficiently stored in the form of fats. Lipogenesis encompasses the process of fatty acid synthesis."-wikipedia entry for 'lipogenesis'

The only fatty acids that humans need to actually ingest because our bodies can't synthesize them are the two kinds of essential fatty acids (EFAs): omega-6 (linoleic acid) and omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)). Both of these can be found abundantly in plant foods.

Anyone wanting to go on vegetarianism should read a little about the amount of calories he/she needs and how to divide it into carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals.

Be a vegetarian is not only to stop eating meat. You have to balance your diet without that meal/fish.

There are a lot of people who do a lot of sport, sport of competition like athleticism, like body building, like marathons and they are vegetarian and even vegan. All of this is very easy to find in a simple search on Internet.

What I'd like to say is to do what works for you. If vegetarianism does, then follow it. However, I don't think that it is right to force it on everywhere.

"Life is a struggle. Life will throw curveballs at you, it will humble you, it will attempt to break you down. And just when you think things are starting to look up, life will smack you back down with ruthless indifference..."

18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community that has so generously given me so much, sincerely former monk John

Seemingly true, but at the same time the Buddha made strict rules that made it much harder to eat meat and eat a lot of meat, so obviously the buddha was absolutely not encouraging meat eating, otherwise he would have made no rules at all, since he made it much harder to acquire and eat as much meat, one has to assume that the buddha obviously believed it was better to eat less or no meat, for instance I can't possibly imagine the buddha complaining he wasn't getting enough meat, given that 95% of the buddha's recorded meal were evidently vegetarian, would that pro meat eating crowd could be so enlightened.

18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community that has so generously given me so much, sincerely former monk John

18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community that has so generously given me so much, sincerely former monk John

Seemingly true, but at the same time the Buddha made strict rules that made it much harder to eat meat and eat a lot of meat, so obviously the buddha was absolutely not encouraging meat eating, otherwise he would have made no rules at all, since he made it much harder to acquire and eat as much meat, one has to assume that the buddha obviously believed it was better to eat less or no meat, for instance I can't possibly imagine the buddha complaining he wasn't getting enough meat, would that pro meat eating crowd could be so enlightened.

Of course, the point is not killing and also not holding a deluded view that abstention from meat leads to nibbana

Seemingly true, but at the same time the Buddha made strict rules that made it much harder to eat meat and eat a lot of meat, so obviously the buddha was absolutely not encouraging meat eating, otherwise he would have made no rules at all, since he made it much harder to acquire and eat as much meat, one has to assume that the buddha obviously believed it was better to eat less or no meat, for instance I can't possibly imagine the buddha complaining he wasn't getting enough meat, would that pro meat eating crowd could be so enlightened.

Of course, the point is not killing and also not holding a deluded view that abstention from meat leads to nibbana

wow, really? is it true? the point is not killing? So the animals who are on the dishes are served alive?

I can't recall anyone arguing that abstention from meat leads to nibbana.

It's implied by some posts

It's hard to say what's implied. How about focussing on Theravada teachings and practices which seem to be relevant to the issue? For example the first precept, modern application of the 3-fold rule, butchery as wrong livelihood, developing metta for all beings, etc.

"I ride tandem with the random, Things don't run the way I planned them, In the humdrum."Peter Gabriel lyric

nekete wrote:wow, really? is it true? the point is not killing? So the animals who are on the dishes are served alive?

I'd feel like a hypocrite if I bought meat. I'm a Buddhist so I'm not going to kill animals or butcher them, but I'd be expecting somebody else to do it - it doesn't feel right to me.

But aren't many or most herbivores going to be eaten by some predators anyway? It is their fate, and it sucks. Samsara is dukkha.

"Life is a struggle. Life will throw curveballs at you, it will humble you, it will attempt to break you down. And just when you think things are starting to look up, life will smack you back down with ruthless indifference..."

wow, really? is it true? the point is not killing? So the animals who are on the dishes are served alive?

Ideally no one should kill, however if someone had invited you for a meal and offers you left over meat then there is no harm in eating it, since it was going in the bin anyway. In fact to reject it because of the "idealism" of being a vegetarian would be more unskilful than eating the meat, since it would be clinging to rites and rituals. You would be acting out of aversion and delusion

Hence why the Buddha ate meat and allowed his monks to do so, but forbade them from killing or having animals killed for them.